FROM "HIGH NOON" TO "MAGNIFICENT SEVEN"

(AP) - Iraq says 85 insurgents killed in clash amid upsurge of citizen tips against militants.

Iraqi officials also credited other successes to a torrent of intelligence that has begun flowing from citizens heartened by Jan. 30 elections and emboldened by film footage aired on state television that shows captured insurgents confessing their roles in attacks. ''Before, the people had a neutral stance toward this issue,'' said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. ''Now, they have turned against the terrorists.''

What was HIGH NOON - (the classic western in which the US Marshall is forced to confront an evil gang, who've come back for revenge, all by himself because the ungrateful towns-folk are too scared to help him) - has become THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - (in which peasants, who are sick and tired of being pillaged by banditos, hire gunslingers to help them defend their town)!

GO READ A COMPLETE ROUND-UP OF IRAQ'S COUNTER-INSURGENCY AT THE JAWA REPORT.